I made Tacos Al Pastor night before last, since I plan to eat tomorrow afternoon at Chef Alex Stupak's NYC Empellon Al Pastor .  They just got a spread in NYMag (thumbnail below). 

I'm sure my Tacos aren't close to Stupak's, but it was fun to learn about the process.  I followed the www.myrecipes.com version, with refried beans (daughter said "not pretty" - "are they ever ?", wife asked ...), chipotle corn, corn tortillas, steamed Spanish rice, and salsa verde.

Crab Cakes ! Grilled Pickles !!?!

With the 6-1/2 ounces of left-over Blue Crab from the 5 pounds that the Wife and I picked through for last night's dinner, I'm prepping some Crab Cakes.

Andrew Zimmern had an interesting recipe that I used at http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baltimore-style-crab-cakes .

I usually just slap together Tartar Sauce-ish-ness. But, tonight I used the Tartar Sauce recipe from a cookbook my neighbor just gave me (by the authors of the Silver Palate Cookbook). HOWEVER, I JUST made some "Grilled Pickles" this a.m., and used those in the recipe. Of course, grill marks look good on just about anything, I think - but, Grilled Pickles ??? (I had never heard of such !!?!)

BUT, PLEASE TRY THESE - I whipped 'em out in about 10 minutes prep. I may never buy pickles in the store again ! (The only impact that I could tell that the grilling had on the sliced Persian cukes and the red onions, other than the marks, was a slight smokiness, but I like it, and, again, they're so easy !) http://www.jaxhouse.com/2013/08/06/grilled-pickles/ .

Wife's going to make a salad like the nearby Brooklyn Café does with their crab cakes - mixed greens with corn (plenty of that left over from last night !). I just heard my stomach growl...

AFTER-MEAL REVIEW: The Crab Cakes were not as good as Brooklyn Cafe's - Good browning on the cakes, but I will cut back on the Saltines used as breading in Zimmern's recipe by a 1/3 or so next time.

'Cooked for one Nephew plus Wife, and one Nephew plus Wife-to-be - TOO MUCH FUN ! Had a Chef Paul Luna (ish) cabbage salad with red and "regular cabbage" (white ? light green ??), toasted walnuts, gorgonzola (he uses gorgonzola dolce), mint, and a light lemon viniagrette to lead off with. I used my new mandoline, and cut the cabbage slightly too thin.

Then, chicken piccata, which turned out well. I did have one interesting issue, though. When I added some cream to the simmering sauce, the acidity of the sauce caused the cream to curdle some (I just shuffled it in and out through a strainer and removed the big pieces, although I probably could've just used the immersion blender and buzzed it into submission. I just added cream to my "Lemon Butter Sauce" last night made to pour on the "Flounder en Croute", and it didn't curdle,

so it is probably about the pH level. ??)

Couscous, garlic bread and green beans rounded out the chicken piccata entree. Black Raspberry Chocolate Mousse for dessert, with raspberries and whipped cream. Lesson learned - back off on the Chambord from 2 Tbsp. in the Mousse - a bit too boozy !; start earlier on the prep work, and also get that same group again, because they totally cleaned up the kitchen !!!!!!!?!

Sister's Brussel Sprouts

Sister emailed me - - -

"Made the best brussel sprouts tonight I have ever eaten.

Brussel sprouts cut in half, tossed in EVOO and salt and pepper
Roast 400 for 30 minutes
In a skillet: 1/2 c OJ with rinds sliced in big hunks so they can be taken out-Reduce by 1/2
Add 2 pats butter and swirl in
Add 8-10 dried apricots cut in pieces
Add a handful of toasted walnuts.
Pour sauce over brussel sprouts and finish with a little bottled balsamic glaze.

Even though I am just the sister of foodie guy, I can cook."

Birthday Fun - Cooking Class with Sister !!

Hard to beat this coming up this week ---





Holiday Hors d’Oeuvres --- Hands-On !
Wed, Dec 2, 6 – 9p

MENU: Petit Seafood Cakes; Broiled Figs with Stilton & Apricot
Chutney; Citrus-Spiced Mixed Olives; Camembert Walnut Pastries;
Bourbon Steak Toasts with Horseradish Cream; Spiced Pumpkin Seeds;
Trio of Savory Puffed Cheese Straws: Black Olive Tapenade, Pesto, and
Parmesan & Pepper Jack Cheese; Fried Shrimp Toasts; and Fingerling
Potato Bites with Smoked Salmon & Crème Frâiche.



With Chef Samantha Enzmann ! and Sister ! :-)

Wife made some wonderful burgers on the grill. Salted and peppered, with a great crust, they made a wonderful meal on toasted buns. Her good guacamole was a satisfying side. One one-inch-diameter tomato from the garden gave up its future to enhance my burger !



Alongside all of this production, I decided to try and make use of the eggplants that GrandMother had sent - two purple and two white.



I read several recipes online, and started winging it (which can be dangerous !).



I cut all of the eggplants up into about 1/4" slices, and salted both sides, waiting about 5 minutes for the moisture to come out. I recall that this "de-bitterized" the eggplant I rinsed the slices and dried them, and coated them in about 1 Tbsp. of good olive oil. Since Wife had the grill going for the burgers, I grilled them all, losing two through the grates. :-(


I headed toward Ina Garten's "Eggplant Gratin" recipe.


In that recipe, she slices the vegetable 1/2" thick, so we'll see how that difference turns out.

She made a custard of ricotta, half-and-half, and egg, then layered browned eggplant slices and marinara sauce. The gratin was then baked.

Mine was pretty good. I think that the thicker slices would haven been better.

As is always the case in a surfing session, I found some interesting stuff. The eggplant picture came from a blog called Tuesdays with Dorie , where, since January 2008, a collection of bakers - hundreds of them ! - have been baking through the recipes in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. (James Beard Award winner). They post their comments on each weekly recipe on their own blogs, posting a link to their blog post on the Tuesdays with Dorie site. HOW FUN !

Delightful (and not frequent enough) family gathering today - including food-stuff !

Wife made some Roast Beast (chuck) which cooked for about 11 hours in the crock-pot using a Paula Deen recipe - very tasty. Mashed potatoes on the side with some corn and roasted peppers completed the meal (oh, and the ubiquitous french baguette). I WILL make my own loaf one of these days (day number 720, possibly, of saying that to myself).

GrandMother brought a really good Key Lime Pie with that good graham cracker crust.

I whipped out the Valrhona "Coeur de Guanaja" finally. WARNING - BORING TECHNICAL DETAILS _ ON ---Valrhona calls this a "revolutionary chocolate concentrate" with a high chocolate content and lower cocoa butter. They say in the literature that, in "...some recipes the fat content restricts the amount of chocolate that can be added. The addition of most chocolate couvertures would add too much fat, resulting in ice creams and mousses that freeze too hard or are too stiff or crunchy. Cocoa powder is therefore used as a substitute with unsatisfactory results such as a pale chocolate color or disappointing flavor. Coeur de Guanaja is now the premium technical solution designed to strengthen the chocolate intensity of your recipes with no compromise in texture.

Possibly some other boring stuff follows, but no more technical and boring stuff.

Maybe one day I will understand what that blurb actually meant, but, for now, I know that the chocolate made a really rich dessert.

This is Shirley O. Corriher's recipe ("Simple Chocolate Mousse") from her BakeWise book (p. 96), copyright 2008, Confident Cooking, Inc. I may ask Scribner Subsidiary Rights Department for permission to reproduce her recipe, but, since Shirley lives in Atlanta, she would probably allow it without official permission.

So, hoping that's true, here it is - - -

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1-1/3 cups semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1. heat the cream until you see steam. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar (I used vanilla sugar that I made). Stirring slowly, dump in the chocolate all at once. Stir slowly until everything's dissolved. (I talked with a pastry chef at Whole Foods about this simple method just yesterday, and he said that this would not work. Take the time to read Shirley's scientific background on the situation and you will realize that she knows what's going on at the molecular level, and, also, the results reflect that he may need to rethink that position.)

2. allow chocolate cream to cool for 30 minutes, then pour into a medium bowl, cover tightly, and put in the fridge for at least four hours. The cream must be thoroughly chilled.

3. whip with hand mixer or stand mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Carefully, continue whipping until you get a moderately firm peak consistency - perfect for a mousse.

4. ...Keep in fridge until serving. You can garnish with a swirl of whipped cream.



It's all about the ratio of those three ingredients, I believe, so if you have less than 1-1/3 cups of chocolate, adjust accordingly.


-Lessons Learned - she said "finely chopped". It is important not to try and short-cut this, like I did with the little chocolate lozenges the first time (unless you like the little flecks of chocolate dispersed throughout).

It is also important to ensure that the cream is starting to steam, not just the one wisp that I stopped at. I believe the cream was not hot enough that first time to melt the entire mass of chocolate adequately. The second time I did it I took it to 200 degress (using my digital thermometer that I enjoy so much), and the finely-chopped chocolate melted adequately.

I also didn't whip it enough, but, again, it was good and rich.

So rich, in fact, that everyone complained about "too much of a good thing" with the portions (from 1/2 cup to 1/3 of a cup). A shot glass full, Sister suggested, would have been just right. And, even for a chocolaholic like myself, she was right.